Third homicide in Bridgeport in a month: 'They came by and lit up the street'

A wave of sobs swept through the crowd as a van pulled up and two workers pulled off the white sheet covering Jeremy Salinas, a 17-year-old boy who was the third person shot to death in Bridgeport in less than a month.

"No. No. I need to see him," his girlfriend cried out, barely getting the words out as she wept. "Please let me see him."

A relative hugged her, and she slowly went limp and sank to the ground.

The young woman had been standing next to Salinas, holding their baby, when someone in a light-colored sedan fired shots in the 900 block of West 32nd Place about 8:35 p.m. Wednesday, according to police and friends of the couple.

Salinas collapsed with a gunshot wound to the chest.

"It shouldn't be like this," said a friend of the Salinas family. "It shouldn't be like this. ... He was just a neighborhood kid."

The friend gathered with more than two dozen other friends and relatives as detectives worked around the teen's body near the mouth of an alley. Salinas lived nearby, in the 1200 block of West 31st Place.

Salinas' mother leaned against the wall of a building as friends held her. His girlfriend sat on the curb and covered her face with her hands. Others paced and smoked cigarettes along the edge of the crime scene, which was cordoned off with red and yellow crime tape.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the chest in a Bridgeport drive-by shooting June 10, 2015. (WGN-TV)

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the chest in a Bridgeport drive-by shooting June 10, 2015. (WGN-TV)

• On May 21, a 22-year-old Calumet City man was fatally shot in an alley in the 1300 block of West 31st Street in what Cook County prosecutors said stemmed from a dispute over money in a marijuana transaction.

Across the city, at least five other people were wounded in other shootings since Wednesday:

• Two men were wounded about 12:30 a.m. Thursday in the Marquette Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side, said Officer Ron Gaines, a Chicago police spokesman.

A 36-year-old man and a 34-year-old man were standing in the 3000 block of West 64th Street when they heard gunshots and realized they were struck. The 36-year-old was hit in the shoulder, and the 34-year-old was struck in the hip, Gaines said. Both men ran to the 2900 block of West 63rd Street and were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Their conditions stabilized early Thursday, Gaines said.

• About 8:40 p.m. Wednesday, a 32-year-old man was shot in the stomach in the 9400 block of South Princeton Avenue in the Princeton Park neighborhood, said Officer Bari Lemmon, a Chicago police spokeswoman. A witness heard gunfire and spotted the man outside their residence after which he was taken to Roseland Community Hospital. The man, whom police described as uncooperative, was listed in critical condition.

• An 18-year-old man was found shot just before 6 p.m. Wednesday behind a building in the 1200 block of West 71st Place, according to police.

The man, described by officers as uncooperative, was taken to Advocate Christ with a gunshot wound to his back. The location of where he was shot wasn't clear. Officers and neighborhood residents over an area of about five blocks heard gunfire, but the call reporting a gunshot victim came a little less than an hour later.

• About 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, police found a 22-year-old man shot in the Marquette Park neighborhood about three blocks from the Chicago Lawn District police station. The man was shot in the head in the 3000 block of West 63rd Street, and officers found him unresponsive on the ground. He was taken to Advocate Christ, where he was listed in critical condition, Gaines said.